I am a weaver. The first thing I think about when I find something new is whether it can became a yarn or be woven. Weaving opens up the possibility of building a small world almost out of nothing, making order out of chaos. A small world that can be carried with you.
Making something is to create meaning, something powerful, because having meaning is having hope. You can carry that meaning with you, in you, you can give it to other people, you can create it with other people.
In the CHALA Project a humble and forgotten material gets value.
The corn husk (“chala”, from quechua language) appears as an element of South American resistance
It is an apparent waste, which invisibly protects the earth and generates energy when it is thrown in the field.
In this sense, it has been assimilated by populations silenced throughout history: the indigenous, the women, the poor.